Time instrument



May 8, 1934. v E. L. CARLSON TIME INSTRUMENT Filed Jan. 6, 1934 Patented May 8, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE TIME INSTRUMENT poration Application January 6,

2 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in timeinstruments, and more particularly to improvements in the back of the case of a time-instrument, whereby the number of parts and cost of 5 assembly of the time-instrument is reduced.

Heretofore, in the making of such time-instruments as alarm clocks, for example, it has been customary to have the front and rear movementplates of the movement connected by four or more pillars, the rear ends of which extend through corresponding openings in the back of the case and have nuts applied thereto to secure the pillars and back of the case together. I have found, however, that it is not necessary to have all of these pillars connected to the back of the case so far as mechanical reasons are concerned. Nevertheless, to provide a construction in which a lesser number of pillars are connected to the back of the case would require one of two things. One of these would be to apply nuts to only part of the pillars extending through the openings in the back of the case. This, however, would result in the ends of those pillars which extend through the case and do not have nuts, presenting an unfinished and unmechanical appcarance which would tend to produce in the eye of the purchaser, the thought that the article is incompletely manufactured and that some of the nuts have been left off through accident, thereby interfering with the aesthetic appearance and sales value of this type of construction.

The other way would be to make such pillars as it was considered unnecessary to connect to the back of the case by nuts, of shorter length than the other pillars, so that such short pillars would not extend as far as the back of the case, thereby making it unnecessary to provide holes in the back. of the case overlying these short pillars. This construction, however, would require the provision of two sets of pillars, one long and the other short, thereby not only necessitating an additional item with additional cost of manufacture, but interfering with and slowing up the assembly of the movement-plates and pillars, owing to the fact that the person doing the assembling must think and carefully observe as to just where to place the long pillars and the short pillars in order to have them come in proper position for proper assembly with the back of the case.

I have found that these difficulties can be overcome and the cost of construction and assembly of such a time-instrument can be reduced by using only one length of pillar, so that all pillars are of the same length, but providing the back 1934, Serial No. 765,534

of the case with bulged-out bosses formed at locations to overlie such of the pillars as it is not desired to connect to the back of the case with nuts, only having holes in such portions of the it is desired to permit such of the pillars to extend therethrough to be connected to the back of the case by nuts.

This construction results in a less number of nuts being used with consequent less cost, and also decreases the cost of the assembling operations inasmuch as only two nuts have to be applied to assemble this portion of the clock instead of the four nuts used heretofore.

It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide an improved, simplified construction of tinie-instruments of the nature above explained, more economical to manufacture and more economical to assemble.

With the aboveand other objects in view, this invention includes the improved features, parts and combinations of parts disclosed in the following description, appended claims and accompanying rawing forming a part of this specification.

In the accompanying drawing, in which one way of carrying out the invention is shown for illustrative purposes:

Fig. 1 is a rear elevation of a time-instrument made in accordance with this invention;

Fig. 2 is a left-end elevation of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a sectional View on the line 33 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view on the line 4-4 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a sectional view on the line 55 of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 6 is a rear perspective view of the back and side of the case.

Referring to the drawing, the case 10 is supported upon a base 11 and has its back or backplate 12 formed integral therewith in the particular embodiment shown in the drawing, although it will be understood, of course, that this backplate 12 may be made as a separate member.

The front and rear movement-plates 13 and 14 respectively are connected together by four pillars 15, which pillars are of substantially the same length as each other, with their threaded outer ends 16 extending substantially equal distances beyond the rear movement-plate 14, with nuts 17 105 mounted on the threaded ends 16 of all the pillars to hold the rear movement-plate in assembled relation with the pillars.

Instead of having holes through the back 12 of the case to register with the ends on all of the 110 pillars, only two holes 18 are formed in the back of the case, preferably opposite one another, while two bulged-out bosses 19 are formed in the back of the case to overlie the ends of the other two pillars (Figs. 4 and 6). Two nuts 20 are applied over the ends of the two opposite pillars which extend through the holes 18, and the nuts 20 are turned down to clamp the backplate 12 between the nuts 20 and the nuts 17. Although the ends of all of the pillars project equal distances beyond the rear movement-plate, it will be observed that the bulged-out bosses 19 overlie the ends of such. of the pillars as do not extend through holes 18 with ample clearance, as shown in Fig. 4.

It will thus be evident that a time-instrument constructed in accordance with applicants invention requires only two nuts 20 instead of the usual four or more nuts to assemble it, with consequent less cost for the smaller number of nuts, together with the more important decrease in cost of the assembling operation, and inasmuch as the class of time-instrument in which this mode of construction is largely used, is in the low-price alarm clock field, these economies of construction and assembly are of considerable importance.

The invention may be carried out in other specific ways than that herein set forth without departing from the spirit and essential characteris tics of the invention, and the present embodiment is therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, and all changes coming within the meaning and equivalency range of the appended claims are intended to be embraced therein.

I claim:

1. A time-instrument including: a movement having movement-plates; three or more pillars joining the said movement-plates, all of which pillars project to substantially the same degree rearwardly from the said movement; a case, the back of which has two holes adapted to have the ends of two of said pillars extend through said two holes and be secured to the back of the case; securing means applied on the ends of said two pillars and against the outside of the back of the case; and one or more bulged-out bosses formed on the back of the case in positions to overlie and house the ends of the other pillars.

2. A time instrument including: a movement having front and rear movement-plates; three or more pillars joining the said movement-plates, all of which pillars extend substantially the same distance to the rear of the rear movement-plate; a case, the back of which has two opposite holes adapted to have the ends of two substantially diametrically opposite pillars extend through said two holes and be secured to the back of the case; securing means applied on the ends of said two opposite pillars and against the outside of the back of the case; and one or more bulged-out bosses formed on the back of the case in positions to overlie and house the ends of the other pillars.

ELOF L. CARLSON. 

